


Defective

by Wicked_Sonniku



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Established Relationship, Love/Hate, M/M, Major Sibling Rivalry, Mentions of and somewhat interfacing, Multi, Single Parents, Time Skips, Transformer Sparklings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8464603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wicked_Sonniku/pseuds/Wicked_Sonniku
Summary: Nothing was fair, in Zippy's opinion. It wasn't fair that he was about two times smaller than his stupid younger sister. It wasn't fair that his Sire only visited in the night, and left long before dawn sometimes. It wasn't fair that everybody stared at him and called him names at school. It just wasn't fair.





	1. Pint-Size

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back!  
> So, if any of you are confused, I highly suggest you read these two stories before reading this, or you won't understand:
> 
> Life Now by espioc  
> Right Down To It by espioc
> 
> This is basically me re-writing the story with another sparkling in it (Zippy, for those who know. I got permission, too).

"Carrier?"

"Yes, Zippy?"

"Am I....d-d-defective?"

Blurr started with surprise at the question, his optics flying open to look at the little mech laying up in his little bed, placed directly across from his younger twin sister's, who herself was already deep into her blissful recharge.

Zippy, however, had come to his Carrier's door a few hours after being put to sleep, upset, even though he refused to say why until he was snuggled with Blurr in his bed, and even then he had sat there quietly for a moment fiddling with his digits and picking with his blanket, like he was embarrassed at the question. 

Blurr tried to keep his voice steady, his processor whizzing to come up with an answer to the question he hoped would never dare be spoken. "Of course you're not...defective. W-Who...Who told you that?" He finished in a rush, the words tumbling out of him in a desperate stutter.

Zippy, having understood everything his Carrier said (he was often the only one who could), frowned and kept his optics trained on his servos. "I've j-j-just been t-thinking..." he murmured. He looked with something strongly resembling longing over to his sister's bed, where she was still sleeping soundly. "L-L-Lightwave is s-so much b-bigger than m-me, and-" 

"You know her size comes from your Sire, you know that," Blurr cut off the little mech, his words frantic, like he was hiding something.

True, Zippy had always wondered about why his sister was so much larger than him, so much faster, so much more....everything, and both his Carrier and his Sire (after Blurr told him to say it) had just brushed it off by telling him that Lightwave got her size and abilities from Shockwave, and Zippy's from Blurr, and that was it, thank you very much, no more questions. 

"B-But...But...m-my teacher said that m-m-my p-p-processor was...under-"

"Underdeveloped?" Blurr cut off his son for the second time, raising an optic ridge, and the anger in his tone evident.

It was also true that with Zippy's stutter, people often though he was...delayed, and Blurr supposed it was natural for the teacher to think that, too.

Still, it didn't seem like the right thing to say to a child....especially Zippy. The little mech was a stuttering mess trying to get his discomfort out. 

"I-I-I-I d-d-d-don-don't-"

"Zippy, slow down. Breathe, just like Sire said." Blurr reminded him firmly, a servo drifting downward to rest comfortingly on Zippy's back.

Sometimes, when he was very upset, the little boy's words would twist and collapse on each other, and trying to get them out made it very difficult to breathe.  

Zippy sucked in a shuddering breath, and let it out with a sigh. He did this about three times, until he was relaxed enough to keep talking. 

"W-What d-does that m-mean, Carrier?"

Blurr smiled despite himself. "Carrier" and "Sire" were often the only two words Zippy could say without so much as a single stutter. 

"Carrier?"

"O-Oh, right. Um, well...when a sparkling is underdeveloped, it means that...well...some things..are taking their time growing."

Zippy pondered this for a moment, his optics narrowing and dropping to his covers. When he spoke again, his voice was shaky.

"S-So...I-I'm...slow?"

"Well. your body is...in a sense."

"O-Oh."

There was an almost touchable awkward silence, and the only sounds in the room were the whirs and clicks of Lightwave as she slept. Then Blurr heard a sniffle. Zippy was crying, streams of coolant leaking down his small face.

"Zippy!' Blurr yelped, putting his arms around his young son. "Don't-Don't.... do that, don't cry, you know how much your Carrier hates it when you cry..."

"I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry C-C-Carrier!" Zippy wailed, caring not about the risk of waking his sister, who shifted in her bed. "I-I-I c-c-can't help it! I'm w-w-wrong, I'm w-w-wrong!"He was beating the bed with his little fists, and openly sobbing onto Blurr's chest, who was fighting back the tears himself. 

He said nothing, just let the little mech cry until he was past the point of tears, let him sob until his helm surely ached. 

When Zippy was sighing and whimpering quietly against him, he finally spoke. 

"Zippy...you're not wrong-"

"Y-Yes I am!"

"Don't interrupt me. You are not wrong. You-you and your sister-are special. You'll always be special. You're different, and that's ok. People are always scared of what they don't understand, and that's ok too. As long as you remember one thing." 

He paused, and Zippy looked up at him, sniffling helplessly. 

"W-What?"

"I love you. Your Sire loves you, too. So does your sister. And that's all you need, ok?" Zippy sniffed one more time, then he was quiet. He said nothing for the longest time, and leaned against Blurr. It wasn't until Blurr heard his son snore softly did he realize he had fallen asleep right there, leaned against his Carrier. Blurr smiled, letting tears slip from his optics finally as he looked down on the child, his face angelic in recharge. He loved this little thing. Both of them. He loved them from the bottom of his spark, and he knew he always would. He'd meant every word he's told the little mech. As long as Zippy knew he was loved, he didn't ever need to worry about anything else. He just needed to be his wonderful self, and Blurr would take care of the rest. 

He couldn't help, though, dwelling on a piece of what he'd said.

 

 

 

_"Your Sire loves you, too."_


	2. The Best Years of My Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say that school years are the best years of a child's life.  
> For Zippy, it's more like a never ending bin of goody-goody Autobot sparklings, and him-the freak. 
> 
> Best years, his aft.

"If you don't wanna go today, just tell Carrier. Or better, tell Sire the next time he's here!"

 

"D-Don't b-b-be a j-jerk, Lightwave. I'm c-coming."

 

Zippy huffed and pushed himself off of his berth, placing his pedes on the ground as heavily as he could on his way to the doorway to the twins' shared bedroom, where his younger sister was leaning, having a fine time and grinning down at him.  

Whatever. 

She acted like school was _so_ great. Well, it wasn't. Not even for a nanoklik would he ever act like he wanted to go waste his days being made fun of. Ever. And why should  _she_ want to go? She was just like him. She had a Decepticon for a Sire, just like he did. She was dark, too. They talked about her, too. And yet she pranced around the house with a huge smile on her face every morning like school was the best thing ever invented, and like she had a whole army of friends waiting for her inside. Well, she  _didn't._  She sat alone at lunch, just like him.

But he liked to learn. He really did. That was the only thing good about school, hearing his teachers shower him with praise and good graces. His Carrier already did that, but he was _supposed_ to. It was different coming from someone else. Better. 

 All the other little mechs and femmes treated him like he had a disease. And not just cause he was Decepticon-colored. It was because he was small, too. And weak. And fragile. The mechs liked to trip him and push him when the teachers weren't looking. The femmes would giggle at how he was smaller than them.

Well, whatever. He could outrun all of them. Even Lightwave. Speaking of.....

 

"R-Race you t-t-to school t-t-today."

"You're on."

That was another thing the siblings had in common. They loved to race. Not just with each other, either. Their Carrier, his work friends......anyone that walked into their house had to race. Even though Lightwave wasn't as fast as him, it was still something she enjoyed. Besides, she always beat Sire when he came to visit. 

Sire was slow. 

Zippy giggled at the thought, his bad mood vanished, as he followed Lightwave to the door, both of them grabbing their bags and receiving hugs from their Carrier as they went. 

"What's so funny, Zip?" Carrier asked him with a good-natured smile on his face. 

"R-R-Remember when w-we r-raced Sire?" 

Carrier did something weird then. He was supposed to laugh, he was supposed to be tickled at the memory of Sire puffing along next to his sparklings. 

But he didn't. Instead, he got that look in his optics. That look that he got late at night, that look that appeared in the tiny moments before he said goodnight. That look that took him somewhere else. Somewhere painful. Somewhere Zippy longed to be. 

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I remember." A servo drifted lovingly along Zippy's faceplates. "I remember," he repeated, reaching another servo out to Lightwave, but not smiling. He sounded sad and....angry. 

 "Carrier?" Lightwave squeaked cautiously, holding fast to the digit caressing her cheek. Zippy looked, too, at Carrier, his silence asking everything he was afraid that he would never get out. Carrier closed his optics for a fraction of a second, a tiny sigh pushing out of him. Next second, he was smiling a horribly fake smile that made Zippy shiver.

"I'm fine, guys. Everything's okay. Now, you're gonna be late! Scoot, both of you."

Zippy just stared. No, everything  _wasn't_ okay. He just knew it. The voice was right, but the face was still terribly sad and full of rage. Rage for whatever. Lightwave nodded slowly, casting a look at her twin that said everything that Zippy was thinking. "Okay, Carrier. C'mon, Zippy." 

Zippy nodded and followed his sister out of the door, but not before casting a last glance at his Carrier, still knelt down in the doorway with that fake smile on his face. 

 

Primus, how Zippy longed to be in that place.

 

************

 

"Hey, Decepti-twins!"

 

Zippy sighed irritably, stabbing his spoon hard into his container full of mashed copper carrots and feeling Lightwave tense up against him. A femme was coming their way, a blue and white seeker who he supposed was pretty, if not for the downright ugly look on her face.Her name was Echo, a pretty frequent torturer of the twins. He could see her groupies eagerly watching her approach the two outcasts from their table with sadistic little giggles.  

 

"Just ignore her," Lightwave whispered to him, her optics narrowing as the femme drew closer. Zippy nodded and, with difficulty, forced his eyes back to his lunch, reaching for a cup of energon to his right. Before the tips of his digits had curled fully around the cup, however, it was knocked from his grip, its contents gushing out onto the once pristine gray table top. Echo had gotten there quicker than he thought, apparently. Lightwave gasped, barely heard over the femmes at the other table howling with sadistic laughter. 

 

"Oops," Echo simpered, her cobalt optics alight with pleasure. "Didn't see that there." Neither twin responded, but only glared at their small oppressor. She rolled on, however.

"Nice job in class today. I guess Decepticon sparklings  _can_ be educated with the rest of us," she continued in a loud voice, her voice sickly sweet as poison. The twins still didn't respond, but Zippy could feel Lightwave positively shaking with rage beside him.  

The other femmes laughed their appreciation to the comment, clutching on to one another. 

"But," Echo pressed. "I didn't come over here for that. I heard from Takeoff that whichever one is the boy here is planning to enter in the Olympiad." 

She was referring to the math competition held every year, the competition that Zippy had been training for for years and which he was finally old enough to enter. The winner was gifted a day off from school and  _total_ bragging rights, among other menial prizes.

"Well?" Echo barked, looking from Lightwave to Zippy expectantly.

Taking a deep breath, Zippy started to talk. 

"I-I'm e-entering-"

"Yeah, well, I just thought I'd warn you," Echo snapped, cutting him off. "You should drop out. You're like, way in over your head. We wouldn't wanna see you get embarrassed."

Zippy blinked in surprise, but as he opened his mouth to respond, she kept talking. 

 

 

"I mean, your poor Carrier doesn't need a  _third_ disappointment, right?" 

 

 

It's about the meanest thing she's ever said, and he's too stunned to say anything. Or move. Lightwave, however, stood up angrily, scattering her dishes and clomping over to Echo, shoving her face in hers, red eyes to blue. 

 

"How  _dare_ you," she snarled. "You don't know  _anything._ Our Carrier's been through things you couldn't even  _dream_ about, so keep your big mouth shut about things you don't understand before I shut it for you." 

Echo, however, stood her ground, glaring into Lightwave's fiery optics with contempt. 

 

"Oh, puh- _lease._ Cry me a river, Decepticon. My Carrier told me that your Carrier's a big fat traitor, and that he willingly got sparked up by a Decepticon. _She_ doesn't believe his big sob story." she spat. 

 

"Well, your Carrier's just as dumb as you!" Lightwave yelled. 

 

Echo bristled with rage, and she took a step closer. 

 

"Leave my Carrier out of this!" she yelled back, stabbing a finger into Lightwave's chest plates. 

"Don't touch me!" Lightwave snatched the femme's digit away from her. 

 

It was at this point that Zippy got over his post-insult paralysis, sensing something was about to happen. Something that would plummet the twins' popularity status even further down into the ground than it already was. He stood up, making his way behind his sister and gently grabbing her servo. 

 

"W-Wave, c-c-calm down." he muttered, giving her servo a squeeze. "It's n-n-not w-worth it." 

 

 

 

 

"I would say so." a voice, smooth and female, rang out above them. 

 

 

 

 


End file.
